In emphasizing emotion and imagination, romantic art shifted away from the restraint of classicism and neoclassicism that had dominated art in Europe since the Renaissance. Romanticism achieved its greatest popularity in art, literature, music and philosophy between 1780 and 1830, although its expression of individual experiences ranging from awe to passion informed culture in the decades after.
Landscape painting was especially popular during the romantic period, as were nature studies of wild animals and fantasies of exotic lands. Romanticism varied across Europe as it reacted to the rise of industrialization, a more personal relationship with faith that was distanced from the church and the rationalist thinking of the Enlightenment.
British painters such as John Constable and J.M.W. Turner responded dramatically to the light and atmosphere of the natural world, while William Blake conveyed humanity’s connection to the divine in his visionary art. In Germany, the late-18th-century Sturm und Drang, or Storm and Drive, movement, with its probing of the unconscious, inspired a sense of mystery in work by romantic artists such as Caspar David Friedrich and Philipp Otto Runge. In France, where the French Revolution had turned tradition upside down, Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix used lush brushwork to paint monumental canvases with tumultuous scenes of nature and history.
The romantic movement and its subject matter were a significant influence on the Pre-Raphaelites, Symbolists and the American painters of the Hudson River School, as well as on other cultural movements in the 19th and 20th centuries that saw artists build on this perspective in which art was guided by emotion rather than reason.
Find a collection of romantic paintings, sculptures, prints and multiples and more art on 1stDibs.
Untitled #5250
By Hiro Yokose
Located in Phoenix, AZ
oil on canvas Neo-romantic painter Hiro Yokose fuses multiple layers of wax and oil paint to create mysterious, veiled landscapes illuminated with flashes of light in the sky and ...
Canvas, Oil
$37,000
#5091
By Hiro Yokose
Located in Phoenix, AZ
oil and wax on layered canvas Neo-romantic painter Hiro Yokose fuses multiple layers of wax and oil paint to create mysterious, veiled landscapes illuminated with flashes of light i...
Canvas, Wax, Oil
WOP 2 - 00654
By Hiro Yokose
Located in Phoenix, AZ
mixed media on paper; unframed full sheet 22.75 x 30.25 inches signed, dated and titled on lower right Neoromantic painter Hiro Yokose fuses multiple layers of wax and oil paint...
Paint, Paper, Mixed Media, Archival Paper
Price Upon Request
Turtle Man
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Beautiful drawing by enigmatic artist Len Poteshman
Charcoal, Oil
$4,094Sale Price|20% Off
H 47.25 in W 47.25 in D 0.99 in
Large Contemporary Abstract Painting Gestural Mixed Media Mediterranean Light
By Ángel Celada
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Large contemporary abstract painting with gestural marks and layered mixed media textures inspired by Mediterranean light and atmosphere. This work by Ángel Celada develops an open ...
Oil, Spray Paint, Acrylic, Board, Wax Crayon, Wax
$872
H 27.56 in W 15.36 in D 1.58 in
Painting with linen, beeswax and natural pigments, yellow turmeric and brown
Located in Carballo, ES
The painting measures 77 x 39 cm and is an old linen sack filled with polyurethane foam. The pigments include beeswax, oxide vinegar, yellow turmeric, and natural graphite. The work...
Canvas, Wax, Graphite, Pigment
$26,558
H 33 in W 24 in D 2.5 in
Yellow & Black Abstract Expressionist Art, Mixed Media on Paper, Signed, 1999
Located in Preston, GB
Yellow & Black Abstract Expressionist Art, Mixed Media on Paper, Signed, 1999 - a Unique Original Painting - an extremely rare early work from leading British Contemporary Artist...
Gesso, Canvas, Cotton, Wood, Paint, Paper, Parchment Paper, Varnish, Cot...
Untitled (0673)
By Hunt Slonem
Located in New York, NY
This whimsical and sophisticated painting was realized by the esteemed contemporary painter, Hunt Slonem in 2016. It presents a stylized rabbit in profile, rendered with loose and ex...
Canvas, Oil
Valley Landscape
Located in San Francisco, CA
Alejandro Rubio Valley Landscape, 2025 Oil on canvas 18 x 24 inches This one-of-a-kind oil painting on canvas is stretched across wooden stretcher bars.
Canvas, Oil
$850
H 6 in W 6 in D 1.5 in
Tripod - Playful Long-Limbed Cat Painting, Contemporary Figurative Art
Located in Dallas, TX
“Tripod” showcases Michele Mikesell’s beautifully strange, endearing take on animal portraiture. Painted in oil on board and presented in a 6x6 inch wooden floater frame, this tall, ...
Oil, Board
$420
H 10 in W 8 in
Ray Simonini, "Looking at You" 8x10 Impressionist Cow Farm Animal Oil Painting
By Ray Simonini
Located in Saratoga Springs, NY
This painting by artist Ray Simonini titled "Looking at You" is a 10x8 farm animal oil painting on canvas featuring a three grazing cows in th...
Canvas, Oil
$8,000
H 14.5 in W 12.5 in D 1.25 in
"Glisten Series" Bunny on Colorful Diamond Dust Background Oil Painting Framed
By Hunt Slonem
Located in New York, NY
A wonderful composition of one of Slonem's most iconic subjects, Bunnies. This piece depicts a gestural figure of a white bunny on a colorful background with thick use of paint. Insp...
Glass, Resin, Oil, Wood Panel
$870
H 27.56 in W 13 in D 1.58 in
Painting with linen, beeswax and natural pigments, blue and brown
Located in Carballo, ES
The painting measures 77 x 33 cm and is an old linen sack filled with polyurethane foam. The pigments include beeswax, oxide vinegar, indigo blue, and natural graphite. The work is ...
Canvas, Wax, Graphite, Pigment
$1,740
H 18.12 in W 21.66 in D 0.79 in
"Landscape" Abstract Geometric Paint on Canvas made in Italy by Marilina Marchic
Located in Agrigento, AG
Landscape mixed media on canvas 46x55 cm 2023 Original Art, Ready to hang Marilina Marchica, born in 1984, was born in Agrigento, where she lives and works. She graduated in Paint...
Canvas, Pastel, Oil
Sold|$17,950
H 37 in W 33 in D 4 in
Signed Large Framed Antique American Modernist Butterfly Still Life Oil Painting
By Hunt Slonem
Located in Buffalo, NY
Hunt Slonem (b1951) Antique American butterfly oil painting titled "Viceroy". Oil on board. Signed verso. Framed. Measuring: 37 by 33 inches overall, and 29 by 24.5 painting alone. ...
Oil
$8,000
H 15 in W 13 in D 1.25 in
"Untitled" Black Outline Bunny on Persian Green Background Oil Painting on Wood
By Hunt Slonem
Located in New York, NY
A wonderful composition of one of Slonem's most iconic subjects, Bunnies. This piece depicts a gestural figure of a black bunny on a Persian green background with thick use of paint....
Oil, Wood Panel
Sold
H 60 in W 30 in D 1 in
Rift Valley, Sonde 6 (flora blue green tan organic copper abstract texture taupe
Located in Quebec, Quebec
"Rift Valley, Sonde 5" is a textural and elemental abstract painting on canvas. It explores the hybridization of chance-derived color-fields with bas-relief aesthetics. Various techn...
Acrylic Polymer, Found Objects, Oil, Acrylic
Sold
H 30 in W 60 in D 1 in
Rift Valley, Sonde 6 (flora blue green tan organic copper abstract texture taupe
Located in Quebec, Quebec
"Rift Valley, Sonde 5" is a textural and elemental abstract painting on canvas. It explores the hybridization of chance-derived color-fields with bas-relief aesthetics. Various techn...
Acrylic Polymer, Found Objects, Oil, Acrylic
Sold
H 60 in W 30 in D 1 in
Rift Valley, Sonde 6 (flora blue green tan organic copper abstract texture taupe
Located in Quebec, Quebec
"Rift Valley, Sonde 5" is a textural and elemental abstract painting on canvas. It explores the hybridization of chance-derived color-fields with bas-relief aesthetics. Various techn...
Acrylic Polymer, Found Objects, Oil, Acrylic
Bright Lights
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
Bright Lights depicts the hills of Fiesole, in Tuscany, Italy. At sundown, the glow of the hidden sun remains and shines bright orange above the horizon. Speckles of light along the ...
Copper
Untitled Impressionistic Riverside Landscape
By Alfred Zeller
Located in Houston, TX
Naturalism painting of a river landscape with a figure in a boat. Small scale painting has soft blue and green tones. Artist Biography: Alfred Zeller born in Germany but lived an...
Oil
#5251
By Hiro Yokose
Located in Phoenix, AZ
oil on canvas Neo-romantic painter Hiro Yokose fuses multiple layers of wax and oil paint to create mysterious, veiled landscapes illuminated with flashes of light in the sky and ...
Canvas, Oil